Far from staid or somber or anything remotely traditional, Tuesday’s tribute to the late fashion designer Mary McFadden in New York City somehow encapsulated the future.
Set up like an open house with a four-hour window, guests shared memories of the indomitable designer, admired the timelessness of her designs, watched a video interview and perused tables that were adorned with a multitude of her personal belongings — many of which she unearthed during her trips to 60-plus countries. Attendees also caught a closer look at architectural plans for “Embodying Fashion,” the educational facility, lending library and installation space that is being developed at Drexel University for the Mary McFadden archives. The facility will feature such McFadden-esque accents as a sculptor Mark di Suvero table, Fortuny lamps and a mirror from her Upper East Side apartment.
Crystal wine glasses, hats, jewelry, scarves, throws, ceramics, intricate textiles, amulets, purses were up for grabs. Many admirers passed by slowly — keeping their heads down as they often held and examined their potential purchases — with all of the proceeds earmarked for Drexel University. The designer died at 85 at her home in Southampton, N.Y., on Sept. 13.
Unencumbered by a giant ceramic planter, one guest lumbered across the room with a pith army helmet slightly askew on her head — another McFadden memento — and said justifiably, “I have a lot of outdoor plants. I should get this.’”
From the Kenneth Jay Lane jewelry to the artist Ken Shores “Feather Fetish” to oversize urns, there were mementos from her entire life. The artist Tony Bechara described McFadden “as an artist for the future, who was way ahead of her time.”
Glancing at all the elements at 583 Park, guests could have been reminded of something McFadden told one of her former husbands, Kohle Yohannan. Recalling the last thing she said to him 40 years ago, he said, “’An extraordinary life is a conscious acquisition. You choose it.’”
The celebratory sale was not something that McFadden had suggested. But her close friend Joan Olden, who served as the president of the designer’s company, said Tuesday, “Number-one Mary was her best salesperson. That is still carrying on at this celebration in a very serendipitous way because she is still selling herself. They were acquisitions. It’s like having a piece of her even if it is only one of the little jade rosettes.”
Once the wine glasses, petit fours and the array of objets were cleared away, $25,000 was raised for the Mary McFadden Archives at Drexel University. Asked what McFadden would make of Tuesday’s celebration, her brother John said, “She probably would have told us how to do it better.”
As for what the event said about the designer’s life, her brother said, “Well, it’s alive and well. One of the lines in the speech that I didn’t give was, ‘If you seek a monument or a memorial, look around. All you need to do is look at these things, which are timeless.’”
That high quality and classicism hindered the need to replace items from one season to the next, since a garment could be worn 10 years later. Her brother said he often had focused on her business having been a “thin commercial venture,” versus her “extraordinary” designs. That changed after finding 300 of her garments in a storage facility. He said, “It was like finding 300 Renoirs or something. Each is different and the intellect that you see in each one.”
Susan Gutfreund recalled how she had been introduced to McFadden through her now ex-husband John, who had enlisted the designer — along with other leaders — to help save New York City when it hit financial straits in the early 1970s. In a strange twist of fate, McFadden had spent her childhood living in Gutfreund’s apartment.
Yohannan said McFadden was “a real-life A-list rebel, who occupied a rare space between Old Guard high society and the beat generation Bohemian.” She once told him, “’New York can be tricky, but anything is possible here!’”
Her tennis game was no joke either. With a 90-mph serve and nearly unreturnable drop shots, McFadden moved over to the men’s ladder at The Vertical Club after beating all the women. Her former husband described how they shared lunches, tennis battles, parties, events, 60-page handwritten letters, designing together, and traveling the world. In fact, the designer was so uninhibited, that while once seated on the back of his motorcycle she asked, “What does 150 miles an hour feel like?” — shortly before finding out.
He shared a story about finding McFadden “doubled over” on the floor of her apartment and sobbing, after the Japanese artist Isamu Noguchi died. “’He knew me!’” she cried. ‘He really knew me,’” Yohannan said. “That was a surprise to many. Despite living in the highly superficial world of fashion, Mary was always deeply spiritual. She knew that life is other people.”
